Day 4: “A good, hard skate” for the Sharks, Havlat’s move to the fourth line and lots in-between

It was more instructional than usual, with Todd McLellan barking at players who weren’t in the right place at the right time. It was longer than usual, at least an hour on the ice. And it featured a drill that seemed to both force players to bear down on their shots and work players a little closer to the edge than they sometimes get.

Every player took a breakaway shot. If he didn’t score, the rest of the team did a quick sprint from the red line to the two deep faceoff dots in one zone and back; if he did score, nobody had to skate.

Few scored – Ryane Clowe was one of them — and there was a lot of skating. This gets a quick mention in the print edition story tomorrow that focuses more on the fact the Sharks must now try to end their losing streak against the Chicago Blackhawks team that is yet to lose in regulation. But I’ll repeat McLellan’s quote here anyway:

“We needed a good, hard skate today and we got that in. It gives us a chance to look at the whole team in a shootout situation with them not even knowing it. It gives the goalies a lot of work – a lot of purpose to the drill, a lot of hidden purpose, too.”

Both the Blackhawks and Sharks moved their practices from Johnny’s Ice House to the United Center when – get ready for it – Lady Gaga canceled her concert here today. Teams always prefer to practice where they’ll play, so that was a win-win for both.

*****While most of the print edition story is filled with San Jose thoughts on the upside of playing the red-hot Blackhawks right now, those on the Chicago side did their best to portray the Sharks as a still-worthy foe despite their current funk.

“They’re a dangerous team in a lot of ways. I’ve got a lot of respect for their power play and they can get hot in that area real quick,” Coach Joel Quenneville said. “They’ve got a lot of guys who know how to score, they go to the net, they put pucks to the net and they make it a challenge.

“Some offensive stretches over a season, sometimes the pucks don’t go in for you,” he added, “but they have a tendency — by doing the right things, eventually they get rewarded.”

Here’s what Patrick Kane had to say:

“I don’t know how many they’ve lost in a row, but I know they didn’t play too good in Columbus and got beat in Nashville the other night. I think they’re trying to get some offense going, so we’re going to have to play sound defensively because they have some big players over there that can turn it up.

“Any time you play them it’s been kind of a rivalry that’s developed over the past few years since that playoff series that we played in 2010. It’s a good team. You’ve got to be careful of them for sure.”

Kane, by the way, also talked about good friend Adam Burish, now of the Sharks. Both teams had Wednesday off and the two got together.

“It was fun to see him and talk to him a little bit. You know what? He’s pretty soft. He only chirps to the media,” Kane said. “He chirps to you guys so he gets that reputation in the papers or with the fans out there. Deep down he’s a nice guy.”

(Burish talked more about why the Sharks really weren’t in a bad position, facing Chicago at this point. Most of that is in the print edition story).

*****Lockouts can turn foes into friends. Chicago forward Patrick Kane, for example, got to know Joe Thornton when the two were teammates for Davos’s run at the Spengler Cup back in December

“I played with him like a week, 10 days,” Kane said. “Really good player, great guy, kind of like a big kid. Developed a pretty good friendship with him.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for him now just to see how he was off the ice and the way he plays the game. He just seems to love hockey. It’s kind of funny, the criticism he gets around the league for what’s happened in the past. . .He was guy I watched growing up so it was fun to play with him.”

Kane, who does have a reputation for partying a little too hard at times, also said he spent a couple evenings with Thornton, getting the Davos tour.

Thornton had good things to say about Kane, too, though he wouldn’t talk about Kane’s past reputation for partying.

“We got along real good,” Thornton said. “Just a real nice young man and a lot of fun to be around.”

*****McLellan indicated it was likely Tim Kennedy would be back on the second line with Logan Couture and Ryane Clowe.

“I thought it went well,” Kennedy said of his first NHL game as a Shark and 113th overall. “We’d like to score a little bit and if I could have scored on that 2-on-1 I had back in the first period, that would have been nice.”

Did the fact he was facing Pekka Rinne and not an AHL goalie have something to do with that?

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m not saying the goalies down there are bad but you’re not facing too many goalies with that kind of talent and just his size in general. I tried going through his legs because his pads cover the whole net. I don’t know what it hit . . . thought it was going through his legs and somehow he kept it out of the net.”

****Marty Havlat wasn’t disclosing too many of his thoughts about being moved to the fourth line against Nashville, even though he and Adam Burish and TJ Galiardi generated a lot of scoring chances.

“I’m just a player so I do whatever the coach tells me to do. I can’t control things,” he said. “Whatever line I’m on, I’m just trying to do my best and use whatever I’m good at, and I was successful all my career.”

Did he think a message was being sent? Ask the coach.

McLellan wasn’t too forthcoming either, sidestepping the question about why he moved Haflat to a line with Adam Burish and TJ Galiardi.

“Do you think they were our fourth line the other day? They didn’t play like it,” he said.

The only one talking much about the experience was Burish, who centered the line.

“I think you just had a nice mix of different players,” Burish said. “TJ who’s a speed player who can shoot the puck, who can find openings, who can create opening for himself. And then you’ve got Marty Havlat who’s probably one of the best playmakers in the game.

“I was just kind of thrown in the middle there,” he said. “I guess you’d have to ask those guys what I did.”

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

sharks need to use there speed and open things up,make long passes and crash the net ,dont wait for perfect shots, and jump on rebonds,speed speed speed,we got it and need to use it .clowe needs to go to the 4th line and stop useing him as a power forward,it aint working for him or the team.play some old time hockey and use there size and start hitting,i dont mean go out and be goons ,but start hitting,something i havent seen much of lately.something needs to change befor its to late with this short season.and i think mac should push these guys alot harder like he did today,these guys make the big bucks,make them earn it.GO SHARKS.

Pete

They better figure out what changed in the last few games quick.
I’d bet it’s over coaching, too confusing line changes and losing the fun of the game by too much pressure.
Todd’s got to start listening and stop trying to be too damn clever.

hockeynut

Really Havlat gets demoted to the 4th line and Clowe stays with 1st line? Am I missing something? 🙁

eric

Maybe the first line will be Gomez Burish Clowe next. guess they just want to keep losing.

Lisa

3 hockeynut

Showcasing RC on the top line for a trade in the future? Or because MH has a NMC, motivating him to ask for a trade?

Djudge

“…why he moved Haflat to a line with Adam Burish and TJ Galiardi.”

Freudian slip?

icehawkey

Hablat has been the most creative, dangerous and speedy player lately. So TMac moves him to 4th line? That’s where Clowe should be. Have should be with Patty and Jumbo
That line would have speed size and creativity. Unless TMac knows demoting a guy that doesn’t deserve it will motivate him to somehow spark team, well then he’s an even bigger idiot than I thought. Instant line jiggling and no offense from the supposedly offensively capable defensemen makes for an awful season. I hope I’m wrong and these guys are fired up from the bag skate. To me it seems a shootout drill may be moot because they may not be getting that far in a game soon. Also goalies and players alike tire in practice especially during a condensed season and you can’t really assess their ability properly. TMac continues to send messages to non core players hoping that through osmosis the lazy NMC guys will be inspired. Coddled guys you can’t trade will not put out consistent effort.

hockeynut

To me it’s just more proof McLellan is in over his head Ice.

Diehardshark

tick…..tick…..tick…..tick……toc……Larry Robinson is coming…….

ZEKE

I’m good with TMc spreading the talent to other lines. We need to have scoring ability on other lines than the top line. Otherwise, if teams stop the top line, we’re in trouble.

So if Havlat gets some weak defensive matchups vs other teams 3rd and 4th lines to take advantage of, I’m good with it.

Martin Brody

LOL doing bag skate in a condensed season is a recipe for disaster. I guess desperate times call for desperate measures for TMc.

Moving Havlat to the fourth line isn’t going to do anything at all. Oh well, we didn’t give up much to get him. I guess we shouldn’t expect too much from Havlat.

Lisa

10 ZEKE

Havlat is a play maker – pass first player – so he needs a sniper on his line. I don’t think weak defensive match ups are as helpful to Havlat as having a finisher on his line. Havlat is a top 6 forward, not a bottom 6 one. That’s why I made a joke about the reasonwhy TMac put on the 4th line. In other words there is no good reason for it unless he puts Couture or Marleau with Havlat on the 4th line too.

Mateo

I don’t know if it’s a coincidence that the team has been playing differently since Demers returned and Matt Irwin stopped playing consistently. I thought Irwin, although a little green, had some really encouraging moments and got a lot of big shots on net. I also think Clowe might get a spark playing on the third or fourth line, that Gomez and Couture play well together, and that fellow-countrymen Havlat and Handzus should pair up on the third line. But what the hell do I know? This funk feels like same-old-same-old with this team … if they disappoint once again down the stretch this year, there should be a significant shake-up in 2014.

Andy

Last thread

Yes we understand, all of us what a NMC and a NTC are. The same ones that many players such as Rick Nash, Dany Heatley, and Dan Boyle had before they were traded. Its not uncommon at all to ask a player to waive his NMC or NTC if a teams wants to trade that player. Only the Sharks and some fans don’t understand the concept.

jon

Why put jumbo and havlat on the same line? They will just pass and pass and never shoot.
Clowe was on the 2nd line last game with logan and Kennedy so why do people keep commenting about him needing to be taken off the top line?

the Learned One

Sharks already lost to Chicago for tomorrow’s game. TMac has no clue how to coach. Sit Clowe and Demers and maybe we’ll have a chance.

Bait

The Sky is FALLING!

Bench Couture and Boyle!

Bring back Pelech and Petrecki!

Replace McLellan with Woodcroft!

Calmate wey.

GP

Here’s a useful and completely ignored fact by certain members of the crowd:

Wild: Charlie Coyle assigned to Houston of the AHL..

GP

bustherrr,

Agree, from prev thread. Jamie Baker summed up some of what you said.

If you ask before the season if you take a 7-3-3 record to start the 1st quarter of the shortened season, the answer would be, Hell ya!

What people are freaked out by, the way recent ways the record was achieved.

Martin Brody

GP,

Charlie Coyle is a rookie. He will go through some growing pains. Next time Minny comes to town, go watch Charlie Coyle if he is in their lineup. And tell yourself you wouldn’t rather have Charlie Coyle in a teal uniform instead of Brent Burns.

nolimits

What a great Friday night for hockey coming up. Hawks/Sharks are on NHL network. I can take a look in while watching Wings/Ducks. I’m curious to see what you are all talking about w/regards to your team.

Ok SJ, beat the Hawks and Wings will beat the Ducks since it will benefit us in our respective divisions!

Hang in there…that’s how I’m going about it.
Big test for both our clubs tonight.

TGIF!

hondr

The Sharkys need offense, so Havlat is a logical move, to add speed and movement into the Bottom 6.

Chicago can be had, and if the Sharkys execute as they did in Nashville, the game will be within reach. But if Chicago gets their PP going, it could get out of hand. This will be a good test for the Sharkys’ rebuilt PK. If it holds tonight, that’ll be a sign that progress has been made.

This is the night that Burns and Boyle need to play EXTREMELY sheltered minutes, even more than normal. They are prone to give the game away, and Chicago will have them factored well into their gameplan.

Buddy Elf

Andy says “Yes we understand, all of us what a NMC and a NTC are. The same ones that many players such as Rick Nash, Dany Heatley, and Dan Boyle had before they were traded.”

Apparently you still don’t understand.

The NMC that Marleau and Thornton have are structured differently than the one Heatley had (he had to name a list of teams he wouldnt go to, and the Sharks had to work around that)… Completely different than Marleau and Thornton.

Re: Nash… he had to sign off on any deal that was going to be made… if he didn’t want to leave to go to a contender (and all teams on his short list were contenders).

They are completely different situations… and your ignorance to that fact, while not shocking, is very telling.

But then again, you copy/paste words other people use that you don’t even know the definition or or how to pronounce to somehow make yourself look cooler on a message board.

Much like Martin Brody does with his “analysis”… straight up copy/paste from Canucks blogs.

Spbob72

Trying not to be so emotional with the season at 25% lets see what we got…No where near as good as the first seven games and not quite as bad as the last five.
The good:
Niemi is playing like he did with Chicago…Mostly nowhere near as many disasterous rebounds and fewer snow angels.
Over all defense looks good. Robinson seems to have rubbed off on their style.
Penalty kill has gone from being an achiles heel to a strong point
Irwin on the point on the PK…need to have him in the lineup. Once he was benched the PK stopped scoring

The Bad:
Secondary scoring is a disaster
Five on five offense couldn’t be worse.
Power play inconsistant (That is putting it nicely)
Douglas Murry. Is still a physical presence but has gotten so slow it is hard to watch as he tries to out run another teams forward to touch an icing

Given our unusual schedule I wouldn’t panic until the road trip is over…5-7 points would be OK.(A win at Dallas and Niemi steals one from St. Louis or Chicago) At that point you start to need to figure if you want to be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. As I said they aren’t as good or as bad as their streaks indicate.

Buddy Elf

Bustherr: Great comment last post.

GP: Coyle sent back down… you mean the Wild weren’t impressed with only 6 shots and zero points in 5 games? The way that the posters on this swoon over him, it’s like him and McGone are fighting for who is the next Gretzky. Yet, had Shep been sent back down, they’d repeat it for months on here.

hmslion

At least Kennedy knows how to drive the net…

Andy

Unless someone works in a front office or has knowledge of a particular contract, NMC and NTC are moveable upon player agreement. Always have been and always will be. Here is another instance Tim Thomas, full NMC clause, but HE agreed to be dealt to the NYI. Situations like this happen. Just do something like research and stop being lazy and or just assuming.

Andy

Hm,

Driving the net and scoring are two different things. Torrey Mitchell could drive the net but could not score. I am willing to give Kennedy a chance, but he failed with two other NHL teams so I am not going to give him a long leash in this case.

Andy

Interesting that 19 yr old Charlie Coyle was sent down by the Wild, after only 6 shots on goal, but James Sheppard with 0 goals, has stayed on the Sharks, really shows the difference in depth between the two clubs. The Sharks cannot send the useless Sheppard down, because the only player they can replace him with is worse. Minnesota can send Coyle down and replace him with an actual NHL player.

Andy

Sorry Coyle is 20 yrs old, and he spot is being taken by NHL veteran Pierre Marc Boucard who is coming back from an injury. Must be nice to have actual depth in your organization.

The Linkster

Imagine you go undefeated in January, then go winless in February.
Then you visit the worst team in the league and get blown out.

Now imagine you are the new boss of the Sharks. You are announced as majority owner on January 30th! Since you have been in charge, the Sharks have the worst record in the league.

What’s left…coaching change. And how convenient, a Stanley Cup winning coach is already on the bench! Discuss….

Bill

Burns trade was idiotic. The Sharks gave up speed and scoring and prospects with good upside to get a nutjob defenseman. Burns is barely average on defense, has average puck handling skills and gets caught out of position. He has a heavy shot. His acquisition did nothing to improve the Sharks. As for the Havlat trade, can you really believe that the Sharks are better with Havlat than Heater? Havlat is fragile and his production has been in decline.

Great comment from Kane about Thornton: “kind of like a big kid” Yeah and that’s why they don’t have a Captain willing to tune up the team.

This team is in serious decline.

Dan

Yeah the Burns trade killed this team. Having Seto on the top line with jumbo and marleau was awesome, and also allowed Pavelski to play on the 3rd line. In today’s game you need to have spread out scoring. Burns is an awful skater, can’t hit, always out of position and constantly turning the puck over.

My comment is more pointed towards our current top lines’ unwillingness of late (they were doing it better earlier in the season) to get in front of the net and be in better position for rebounds off of the inevitable blocked shots and initial saves by the giants who now guard the creases in the NHL.

I wonder, also, if Torrey’s career would have been different without the broken leg. We’ll of course never know. He was just coming into his own, and I don’t know if he ever recovered from the season and a half lost…

Big Stick

You people bashing on Burns are unbelievable. The guy was our best defenseman at the end of last year. It took some time for him to adjust to the new system but he got it and was a stud. I imagine the defensive system is different again this year with the new coaches and since he is JUST coming off injury he didn’t get much chance to learn it. Give the guy a few more games and he’ll be back to his excellent self. Also to note he has a ridiculous slap shot that is crucial for the power play. Yes he makes the occasional mistake that everyone here remembers, but so does everyone else. Stop talking like losing gooch and coyle was the demise of this franchise.

Buddy Elf

Andy: The Heatley contract example you used wasn’t even the same type of situation because you were too lazy to do your own research. And Tim Thomas? He wasn’t playing anyway… it doesnt matter to him which team he doesn’t play on… he’s getting a check either way…. completely useless example for this discussion (at least you’re consistent in that).

Sheppard at least has a point (something you conveniently left out choosing to only focus on goals… why no points for Coyle?) How is the Wild’s depth helping them? They have scored 6 less than their opponents have this season… are 10th in the West… Sharks are 5th and you’re calling to trade Marleau and Thornton because you still don’t understand how it works.

Hockeynut

Let’s not talk points on this trip because you can go 0-6 over a 6 game stretch and still pick up six points. Let’s talk wins and losses. 4 games remaining (2 CHI, STL, DAL) how many games will they win? I’m hoping one but you can easily see as many as three or as few as zero. That is a testament to how maddeningly inconsistent they have been this year. Let’s see who shows up tonight.

Hockeynut

Why no points for Coyle? Duh, 6 games vs. Sheppard’s 9.

Buddy Elf

Dan: That is an interesting stat… people complain about us getting rid of 20+ goal scorers… yet, these same people whine and whine and whine and whine and whine and whine and whine to get rid of Marleau, who has been our goal leader since 2008 (aside from last year where he was 1 goal behind the goal leaders).

Consistently inconsistent.

(Of note on your stat… only two of those seven 20+ goal scorers were traded away… and they were traded for a Dman and for Havlat, who played less than half of the season…)

Buddy Elf

hockeynut: But why didn’t he score? Everyone here says Coyle > Sheppard, and we got fleeced in the deal…. With that premise, Coyle should have gotten at least some kind of point, or at least been on the ice when goals for happened, rather than leaving -1. or maybe Coyle isn’t as good as the drama queens here make him out to be when discussing that trade.

Lisa

Ray Emery will be starting for the Hawks.

Definite + for the Sharks.

Buddy Elf

Sheppard scored in his 6th game as a Shark… just sayin’.

Buddy Elf

scored an assist*

SactoShark

Sheppard injured again..out

SactoShark

Can we all just reunite and celebrate the fact Torrey Mitchell is no longer a shark?

Arch Mickel

Saddling 39 and 46 with slowe is just mean! Every line he has been on he has botched rushes, fumbled passes and so on….hey clowe whar doyou feel the strenght of your game is? ” well i like to keep the puck along the side boards then pass to open ice hoping our fast guys will get there first, then i go to the front of the net and try mot to be surprised if the puck comes.”

I think tmack is going for 1 top line and 3 3rd lines or three 2.7 lines…..i like the idea of having 3 balanced lines better than 2 4th lines but for this group i think they could really make 3 1.5 lines and a wrecking ball 4th lime of burish slowe and desi

We will see if making 3 2.7 lines takes pressure of the top line i am glad that line needs to play free and not clenching their butt cheeks cause there are only line that can score unless couture finally is hit with a pass or open shooting lane

Lets go beat the blackroosters

MLBSF1

Well to be honest I am exceptionally pessimistic about our chances tonight.

Poor Niemi. He will have to stand on his head again because we just have no offense what so ever.

Then we go to St. Louis next week when we will have a zero percent chance of winning.

And then it’s back to Chicago. Could things possibly get any worse?

smh

LineTwoRW

Lisa is correct, Havlat needs a finisher as he Jumbo and Gomer are pass first kinda players.

Clowe with Kennedy and Logan is odd, but if he goes to the slot and disrupts this CAN be beneficial; we’ll see. Obviously from a pure fast break stand point Clowe can’t hang with them, but he does add value in the low cycle if he wont go to the slot.

I’d love to see TMac stop out smarting his own lineup, as another poster hinted at. Let them establish some consistency with one another and leave the line adjustments to minor tweaks. The rest of the league seems to think the Sharks are dangerous, but TMac looks to be sabotaging their capabilities.

KL3478

The Minnesota coach, Mike Yeo, on Charlie Coyle.———–

Yeo, a big fan of Coyle, said, “Let’s get Butch Bouchard back in there tonight and give him the chance to go out and be the player that he can be. We believe he can.”

On Coyle, Yeo said, “We have a healthy group here and we want to give Butch a chance to respond. It’s as much timing and numbers as anything else. He’s done a very good job, but at the same time we’ve got some guys here that we know what they’re capable of. Let’s give them a chance to go do it.”

On Coyle’s NHL taste (five games, six shots, a couple highway robberies, a post), Yeo said, “I think it’s going to help immensely. Just learning from the opportunity — but I just finished talking to him — and knowing that he can play at this level and knowing that he can be effective. All he has to do is play his game. So he should go back down and be very confident with that. Not sure of the timing, but I’m pretty much all but certain that we’ll see him again at some point.”